MRS. JOHN: Dear Madam,--For your wise and tender treatment of John you
have my heartiest thanks and admiration. It is not strictly an
architectural suggestion, but could you not found a sort of
training-school for wives who have not learned to manage their
refractory husbands? I'm sure you would have plenty of pupils.

Your query as to applying these hints I am glad to answer. Instead of
preventing its indulgence, close economy demands the exercise of the
most refined taste. The very houses that must pay strict regard to the
first principles of art are those upon which not one dollar can be
wasted. But these fundamental rules are identical, whether the
building costs five hundred dollars or fifty thousand. When the
newspapers describe "first-class" houses, those above a certain size
or cost are meant. Let us henceforth have a truer standard, placing
only those in the front rank whose design and construction are
throughout in wise accord with the material of which they are built
and the uses for which they are intended.

Notwithstanding your want of interest in the wood question, I must
give your husband one chapter on that subject, and promise him it
shall be thoroughly practical, free from all romance and family
allusions.




LETTER XVIII.